Five years of Local Land Services

Working with our partners - 2014-2019

NSW people have much to be proud of over the past five years, with considerable work undertaken to secure the future of agriculture and the environment.

Local Land Services became operational on 1 January 2014, bringing together 27 organisations into one.

During that time communities across NSW have had great success, growing farm productivity and healthy environments and playing a vital role in protecting against pests, diseases and environmental threats. You are also connecting with the best services, advice and networks to handle challenges and opportunities now and in the future.

managing more than 381,000 pest animals by on-ground baiting, trapping and shooting and coordinated aerial baiting campaigns. 10,334 properties undertook ground baiting on more than 22.1 million ha and almost 8,000 km of aerial bait lines were laid

weed management on more than 131.4 M hectares

more than a quarter of a million landholders attending a diverse range of 14,000 training and awareness raising events, with an average of seven information events held every day of every year

Here when it matters

We’ve seen a range of seasonal conditions over the past five years, from the very good to the worst. The two most recent years have been extremely tough with drought impacting across the whole state.

Our staff have provided:

assistance to individuals and groups

36,000 landholders with drought support in 2018 alone, including

3,000 farm visits

community events attended by 13,000 farmers

20,000 phone calls

animal nutrition advice

feed alternatives advice

agricultural production under extreme circumstances advice.

One of the foundational activities of Local Land Services is to be available to assist farmers at the farm gate to achieve the best results for their agricultural pursuits and overcome adversity in their time of need.

Under challenging circumstances you have built on your strengths as land managers, learnt new skills and most importantly supported each other.

Emergency response

Land managers and communities have been hard hit over the past five years, with emergency events including drought, storms,bushfires and incursions of invasive species.

We are proud to have been the boots on the ground to support agriculture and animals and to help our rural communitiesget back on their feet. Local Land Services, in conjunction with a range of other agencies, supports the delivery of animal andagriculture emergency response by the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Large and small events have included the locust plague of 2015, the inland flooding event of 2016 and the Sir Ivan fire of 2017.Demonstrating that the smallest things can have the biggest impact, we responded to a red imported fire ants incursion in 2014and yellow crazy ants in 2018.

Growing, protecting and connecting

The new Land Management Code allows for the best science and data to be used to balance rural land management and biodiversity conservation on your property. Since becoming operational in August 2017, landholders have made more than 3,600 enquiries about the new Land Management Code.

More than 550 landholders have received authorisations under the new Code, which has allowed better management of more than 30,000 ha of land, balanced by more than 14,000 ha set aside to be managed for conservation and nearly 193,000 ha managed to control invasive native species, bringing environments back to a more natural state.

The Soil Conservation Service joined Local Land Service in October 2017 and Private Native Forestry in April 2018, further broadening the range of integrated services available to NSW land managers.

The $15 million Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, has seen more than 60 locally-based coordinators and a centralised support team increase the effectiveness of the Landcare network with more than 2,000 training events hosted by Local Land Services.

Shaping the future

You have been active, vocal and enthusiastic partners in improving the way agriculture and the environment is managed.

You were pivotal to the establishment of 11 Regional Weed Committees, which used public input to develop regional weed management plans to help reduce the $2.5 billion impact of weeds in lost production each year.

Similarly, your input has been essential to the development of the regional pest animal management plans, with more than 400 submissions provided, considered and in many cases shaping the final plans, which were launched by Minister Blair on 1 July 2018.

You’ve been active in shaping management of the travelling stock reserve (TSR) network in NSW, of which 534,000 hectares is managed by Local Land Services. People were vocal in the first review, with more than 900 submissions received. They shaped the draft TSR Plan of Management, a single statewide plan for consistent management across the state and was open for public consultation during December 2018. In the meantime, we continue to ensure a viable, well maintained and connected TSR network for the future with active management (works such as pest and weed control, infrastructure, revegetation, strategic grazing and ecological burns undertaken on 458,000 hectares each year or 86 per cent of Local Land Services managed TSRs). In 2018 alone, the NSW Government invested an additional $2 million to improve infrastructure on the TSRs, including better watering points.

Our customers

Customers are at the heart of the organisation and the latest independent survey found that:

94% of land managers had heard of Local Land Services

79% were extremely satisfied or satisfied with their most recent use of the organisation

71% of private land managers are highly likely to use us again

We scored a +9 net promoter score. This indicates how likely customers are to recommend us to others and is an improvement from -41% in 2016. (Zero is considered a good net promoter score).

We congratulate and thank our farmers, community members, industry groups as well as our board members and staff for the work they have done to improve agricultural production and the environment over the past five years.